1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for setting a language in a television receiver.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Digital video standardizations, for example, those promoted by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG), have led to a proliferation of digital video transmission and reception systems manufactured and used in numerous countries and have even enabled commercial broadcasts and related testing via satellite, terrestrial waves, cable connections, and other mediums in an ever increasing manner. Using conventional “one-way” broadcasting technology, digital broadcasting stations now offer various information and interactive television services. The bandwidth allotted for a satellite broadcast program, for example, can be assigned to carry the broadcast program and control information on a major bandwidth portion, with the remaining bandwidth utilized as an additional information channel for information associated with the broadcast program.
In addition to a main video component, a single transport stream of digital television broadcasting may be made up of a plurality of audio components associated with the transported video signal. Thus, the transport stream includes one video signal and more than one audio signal, and each audio signal may convey a specific language, enabling the viewing of a broadcast program while listening to a desired language, which is selected by the user. Using multi-sound broadcasting technology, a set of languages may be transmitted according to the country or countries of a specific broadcast region. At the same time, multiple formats may be available to enable language-specific functions such as on-screen display (OSD) menus and captioning in the selected language.
For example, a set of languages may be assigned to a television receiver enabling one language to be selected from among several languages, such that a default language is used in a corresponding menu. If a broadcasting station includes the selected language in its transport stream, the television receiver outputs the audio signal of the selected language, and the same language is used for OSD menus. If the selected language is unavailable, a service allocation descriptor is used to set the language of the output audio and menus based on a priority ranking of the available languages. In other words, in a contemporary system, a search of the actual data stream being broadcast via a tuned broadcast channel cannot be performed using, for example, a displayed menu to identify a desired language, and rather than enabling such a search, the system merely allows the selection of one language from among a default set of popular languages. The television receiver of the contemporary system then searches the transport stream according to a system program to determine whether the selected language is included and can be made available.
Therefore, there is a serious impediment to language selection in the event that a desired language is not among the default set of popular languages but is being transmitted by the broadcast station. That is, the transport stream may include the audio component of the desired language, but there may be no corresponding display in the language selection menu, thereby precluding its selection by the user, who is likely to possess incomplete knowledge of the language availability of each of several transport streams by the various broadcast stations in a country or region. Moreover, with no analysis of the transport stream enabled, there is no possibility for a timely display or intelligible representation (e.g., to a user or microprocessor) of the multiple formats that may be available for OSD menus and captioning. As a result, the user of the contemporary system may be forced to view and listen to a broadcast program according to language settings as determined by the service allocation descriptor. Further inconvenience results since the user must perform a separate language setting process for each of a variety of language-specific menus, such as an OSD function menu, an audio function menu, or a caption function menu that may be available in a general television receiver.